


When You Need Me I'll Be There

by Ayecaptnswan



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Bullying, F/M, High School, School Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 14:17:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10923549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ayecaptnswan/pseuds/Ayecaptnswan
Summary: Emma goes to a high school reunion with Killian where he finds out Emma had been bullied quite severely so they go to face it together.





	When You Need Me I'll Be There

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own anything, I do not own the cast, characters and/ or the plot of the show, that all belongs to ABC and Adam and Eddie; I am just a faithful watcher. I was also deeply saddened to hear of Emilie, Jen, Josh, Ginny, Jared and Bex's departures from the show, but I think they're going to create something great and I do love Colin so much so I'm very glad he's staying. I also adore Andrew West; ever since he was on The Walking Dead I have loved him so I'm very excited to see how he and little Alison will do.
> 
> But, as always Captain Swan will always be remembered for me and I hope that the show lets them keep their very deserved happy ending.
> 
> When you need me I'll be there
> 
> 3rd Person

Emma huffs softly at the sight of herself in the hotel mirror.

The knee length black dress that she had brought for the occasion she was going to clung to her in all the wrong ways, and the heels she wore to match made her feet ache in ways she couldn't have imagined. However, this wasn't about her-

(Okay, maybe it was just a little bit.)

-This was about changing opinions, making everyone see her as she is now.

Killian is lying on their hotel bed, playing with his phone, his hook in his overnight bag while his fake hand is in its place. He doesn't enjoy being in New York, not since his last journey's there. However, two months ago when his wife had approached him with puppy dog eyes and the promise that she'd finally clean the storage cupboard with him was too impossible to deny.

Apparently, she has one of those 'school reunion' things or so she said and despite the fact that everything about her demeanor at the time had screamed that she didn't want to go to it, she'd begged him to. That's something he didn't understand.

However, after a quick chat with his mother and father in law, he was informed that his lovely wife wanted to show off. He knew that Emma didn't have much as a child, so he didn't mention the fact he knew she wanted everyone to be jealous of her now quite-spiffing life.

Hearing Emma groan again makes him sit up, quirking an eyebrow at the sight of her. She looks beautiful, as she always has and always will to him, but she also looks very uncomfortable and quite put out. "You alright, love?" He queries softly.

Emma glares a little at him, crossing her arms. "You." She bites out, before gesturing at her abdomen, where the dress clung to her tiny bump, evidence of their true love sitting proudly inside her. "Did this, do you see?"

"That you're pregnant, yes, Swan, I do see." He stands, walking to her slowly like a hunter who doesn't want to spook a deer. "Is that bad?"

Emma pouts, laying her hand on her slightly protruding stomach, turning so that he can see that the zip of her dress is half way up. "My dress doesn't fit anymore, my feet hurt and I couldn't be any more obviously pregnant." She states simply and Killian pulls her into his arms gently.

"I think you look beautiful and there are quite literally seven dresses for you to choose from, love. Two of them being maternity dresses." He reminds her and Emma pouts.

His wife is reluctant to making the switch to maternity clothing as she claims it means she'll be officially in the 'whale stage' of her pregnancy and she doesn't want that, although their little one seems to have different ideas as she's only three months along and her bump was bigger than usual.

"But this one makes me look good." Emma shrugs, glancing into his eyes. "Get the stupid red one." She sighs and he grabs it for her, passing it to his wife gently. "It's not as sexy, but I suppose it'll do."

He kisses her gently, stroking her jaw. "Oi, you're very sexy, besides, you're my wife, and I don't think I want to fight those men for you." He jokes, pressing a kiss to her cheek before sauntering off back to the bed.

"Just pull out your hook, that'll scare them off." She smiles softly before getting changed.

* * *

Emma had ended up choosing the red dress, mainly because it was one of the only ones that fit and it didn't make her look like she was wearing a bin bag like she thought the gray one did. Since the pain in her feet became quickly unbearable within ten minutes, she was now in a pair of flats, so she was in quite the sour mood when they walked into her old school building.

At first, she had pointed out her old locker, noticing it still had the tiny E she had carved with a penknife as a grumpy teen, then her old gym room where she'd constantly truant lessons and watch them from a hidden corner while laughing.

However, as lovely as it was that she was telling him these stories, Killian never heard a friends name in them, not one. "Swan, as much as I love this, what did you and your friends do around here?" He asks curiously and Emma just looks ahead of her.

With a shrug, Emma chews her bottom lip. "Nothing much, messed around, stupid stuff as friends do, but anyway, I used to hang out of that window and climb down onto the roof and then I could break out of school." She explains and Killian stops, leaning on a locker with a small but knowing frown.

"You didn't have any, did you, love?" He asks softly and she shakes her head, looking away. "You hate this place… yet you're telling me stories and it doesn't sound awful-"

"It is when you have to break out of school just because of people bullying you." She states harshly, going to sit on a bench nearby, glancing at the hall in which they're supposed to be in. "I was the new, weird, kid with glasses who was too skinny."

With a sigh, Killian goes to sit next to her. "Swan…I'm sorry." He whispers. "I know what it's like to get picked on."

She nods slowly, he's told her about how the kids at school would beat him up just for the hell of it until his father took them away and sold them into slavery where he was bullied every day no matter what, having no safe haven.

"It just sucks being back here," Emma states, biting her lip. "I came here and joined all these clubs, I made the hockey team and I did cross country, I was a really big athlete." She sighs. "But then kids picked on me for my hand me down clothes at cross country so I quit, and when I made Captain in hockey they all hated me, one girl even hit me in the eye with a puck, so I quit that." Emma looks away. "I was the kid that loved English, I loved learning, and I even liked Science."

"What made you stop?" He asks curiously.

"The boys picked on me, called me names, the girls were just as bad, if not worse. One of them even pretended to be my friend, learned all my secrets, but one night we had a sleepover and she put gum in my hair so I had to have it cut off, which meant I was then made fun of even more." Emma tells him, looking away with a sigh.

"That's not it though…" Killian whispers, he knows her, something else happened.

"She then told the entire school my secrets, including this guy I had a crush on, who then told me he liked me, but it was all just a ruse because he got me to send…photos that I shouldn't have."

Killian's eyes widen a little. "Oh…"

"He then showed them to everyone but said he didn't mean to and I was so stupid I believed him, but then he lifted up my skirt in the hall and everyone called me a slut, whore, anything you can think of really." Emma blinks away tears, sniffling as he pulls her close, wanting to kill whoever did that to her.

"Swan…I can't believe someone would do that to you." He whispers, hiding the anger from his tone as he strokes her back slowly, letting her cry into his chest a little. "Why the hell would you come back here?"

She buries her face into his chest a little before sighing and looking up at him, letting him wipe away her tears with his thumb. "To show them I'm not that girl anymore." She admits, stroking his chest, relieved (not for the first time) that his chest hair pokes out from his shirt and ever-so-gentleman-looking waistcoat.

"Of course you're not that girl, you never were, and you're not any of the things those idiots said to you, Swan. Nor will you ever be."

She hesitates, just like every time, calling herself Jones as she knows she'll always stay being his Swan. "I just want them to see that I'm a completely different Emma. I'm married to the love of my life, we have our Henry and I know my parents and I'm pregnant. I want them to know I do have it all. I have the house and the family, the children. "

The small smile he offers is enough to make her swoon but she continues.

"I have the perfect husband, the perfect son, perfect home, we even have the freaking dog and white picket fence!"

With a chuckle, Killian nods, kissing her gently, nuzzling her nose before pulling away. "Then lets us go show them, love. I'm more than happy to show off Emma Jones and kick that man's arse." He states, before thinking. "But is he a big guy cause it's been a few years and I might need my hook?" He jokes.

"Shut up." She giggles, kissing him again.

* * *

Walking into the hall, hand in hand like usual, Emma feels slightly lighter after sharing her secrets with him, as she always does. They walk up to the table with all the name tags on it, searching for hers quickly but can't find it so she asks one of the ladies at the table. "Hi, sorry but I can't seem to find my name, I did say I was coming."

The women, who Emma recognizes immediately, quickly look at her. "And you are?" They ask, so Emma sighs.

"Emma Jones, but I used to be Emma Swan." She explains, keeping her calm, despite being offended they don't remember her. "I remember emailing back, but apparently it must not have sent or whatever but-"

"Oh my god, wait! Emma Swan?" One of them asks, smirking softly, leaning back in her chair. "You actually came?" When Emma nods, she laughs chirpily. "Wow…now that does surprise me considering how you used to be, very flighty, I wouldn't have expected you'd come back to, what was it you said to me once, the armpit of the US?"

With a cough, Emma leans on her husband's side gently. "Well, uh, I'm here, so…do I have a nametag or not?" She offers her a smile and the woman takes a nametag with Emma Swan written on it.

"Sorry, forgot you were married." She states, smirking softly as she passes it to the blonde, who just steals her pen and crosses out Swan to write Jones instead.

"Sorry." She points at the woman's ringless finger. "Forgot you were still single." She throws her pen back at her before taking Killian's hand and walking around the hall, breathing slowly. "God I hated her in high school, although it's nice to see she's had no changes."

"Except for the bleach blonde hair?" Killian glances at the woman and Emma nods, giggling softly. "Looks rather like a rats den, if you ask me."

With a hum, Emma links her arm with her husbands just as someone knocks into her, making her free hand fly to her small bump carefully. "Hey, watch-" She pauses when she looks up to see the man who crashed into her. "It." She finishes, glaring.

In front of her stood the reason she always ran away, the reason she skipped school and didn't get the grades she wanted since she was never there. "Chris Myers," Emma mumbled, her grip on her husband tightening a little.

To his credit, the man actually remembers who she is without looking at the name tag. "Emma Swan, uh, hi?" He offers her a hand but she just glares at him so he takes it back, wrinkling his nose. "Well, you're just as I remember, well… not exactly as I remember." He gives her a wink that makes her skin crawl.

Killian's jaw clenches on its own as he stares at the man. "It's Emma Jones and she's my wife." He states, guessing that this was the man that upset his Swan so much as a teen, hating him on sight. "I've heard quite the story about you…although I'm having trouble remembering your name, mate, was it uh…ah yes! Cock womble, that was it!" He exclaims gleefully, making Emma hide her smirk at the look on Chris' face. "See you later, cock womble."

With a smirk, Killian leads her away from the man who quite obviously was embarrassed.

* * *

After nearly an hour there, Emma has had several awful encounters and she's only reminded of how much she hated this place, how much they all made her hate herself.

It's not until she goes to the bathroom since she's suddenly needing it every five minutes because of their tiny, yet lovely and wonderful, the baby inside her that has decided to be an asshole today, that she hears the worst of it.

She's closed in a stall, just pulling down her dress when she hears the voices of some of her past school enemies speaking, which normally wouldn't bother her except for the fact they were speaking about her, about _Killian_ in fact.

The girls are people she remembers as Missy James, Olivia Spencer and her old bully, the main one, the worst, Karen Clarkson. All were tall, beautiful, and slim and always had the boys all over them in high school, or from what Emma can remember before she ran away with Neal.

Missy was the nicest of the three, Emma thinks, she was never outright rude to her and even once helped her clean up her books, but the other two were the spawn of Satan, which is only confirmed by what Emma hears.

"Have you seen Emma Swan here yet?" Karen asks, looking at herself in the mirror. "She's just as…Emma as I remember, plain, irritatingly skinny, although I did notice she's got a bit of a belly on her-"

"She's pregnant," Missy states simply, shrugging. "Hardly a belly, it's nice."

"Nice?" Karen scoffs, fixing her hair. "Another Emma in the world, God help us all. I mean…what did she even expect out of this reunion? That we'd all see her pregnant and feel bad for what we did? We didn't even do anything wrong! It was just fun!" She laughs to herself.

"You locked her in a storage room until she had a panic attack." Missy points out, frowning. "You're lucky she didn't report you!"

Karen scoffs while Olivia just smirks, both of them fussing with their hair or makeup. "Yeah, yeah, shut up. But! Did you all see who-"

"Whom," Emma whispers under her breath so they can't hear.

"-She's here with? Her husband, I know, shocking that she's married, but have you seen how hot he is?" Karen asks them with a smirk. "The brunette, kind of tall, smolder on point, blue eyes, gorgeous smile, and beard?" The other two nod.

Olivia hums. "He's hot, what does he even see in Emma? He's…him and she's, well she's her you know? He's out of this world gorgeous, could date anyone he wants, but he chose her? The school whore?"

Missy frowns but doesn't say anything as Karen laughs softly. "I know why." She states like she knows everything. "He's got a fake hand." She points out, making Emma frown.

"Why does that matter?" Missy asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, he's broken." Karen shrugs. "He's got one hand, meaning he's pretty much an invalid, who would love a guy whose only half?" She laughs softly. "I'll bet he's got some pretty ugly scars with it too, I mean only Emma would fall for that. And then he's so desperate for someone to love him that he'd take any whore."

"Karen!" Missy scolds, frowning. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Why can't you just accept that Emma may have actually passed her teens? That she fell in love with someone and they're happy? I mean, if they're happy together then it doesn't matter whether he's got one hand, which I didn't even notice! No one did!" Missy yells, making Emma feel a pang of admiration for the fact she finally stood up for her.

With a scoff, Karen pushes past her with Olivia and leaves, smirking. "Whatever."

As soon as they leave, Emma unlocks her door and steps out, wiping away her tears, and Missy looks shocked that she's there. "Hi," Emma whispers, walking to the sink to wash her hands, sniffling. "Thanks. It meant a lot that you stood up for me and Killian." She bites her lip, drying her hands.

"I'm sorry," Missy states softly, chewing her lip gently. "About what Karen said, she's just bitter because someone loves you and she's getting divorced. But she was having sex with Chris Myers so…I kind of don't blame her husband." She offers Emma her hand. "Truce?"

Emma smiles softly and takes her hand, shaking it once. "Truce. Now, what do you say we go back to my husband, whose probably pacing outside the door with worry." She lays her hand on her bump gently. "He's really protective over bean and me."

Missy laughs softly, nodding. "I can tell, I've seen his hands on your waist or the baby practically since you've been here, he looks at you like you hang the moon."

Emma blushes, nodding. "He does, I'm very lucky."

"So is he, because you look at him in the exact same way." Missy points out. "Now come on, let me meet your lovely baby daddy?"

With a giggle, Emma leads her out.

* * *

It's not until a few days later, when Emma is cuddled up into Killian on their couch, listing out baby names, that she realizes how lucky she actually is.

Karen was a bitch yes, but she did make a valid point. Killian could have anyone in the world, anyone he wants, and yet he fought for her and has stuck by her and loves her with everything in him. And it's not because they were always destined to, their love has been hard and they've fought so hard to get to where they are now, it's just because of one simple fact.

He loves her. And that's all that matters.

It doesn't matter to her that Karen said those things or that she was bullied or that she was known as the school whore, because they were just stupid teens (and now adults) who haven't taken the time to know her, didn't speak to her, didn't care about her.

But Killian does, and so it doesn't matter what they think or who they are to her or what they did to her or what they're saying behind her back or whether or not she has awful memories from it.

It doesn't matter because most of them are single and alone or divorced and are unhappy, clinging onto their status as cool in high school and not caring about others, however, Emma has Killian, she has her family.

She's not a little-lost-girl anymore because she has him, so there is something she can bring from that school reunion, something she'll remember forever and cherish the fact she knows it now.

Fuck the past.

**Author's Note:**

> Ack, this only took a few hours so I apologise if it is indeed crap, it may be, I don't know, that is really up to your judgement! Let me know


End file.
